Report of shooting in Miami Beach home of rapper Lil Wayne a 'hoax': police

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - A report of a shooting at the Miami Beach home of Grammy-winning rapper Lil Wayne was declared a hoax by police on Wednesday after a search found no evidence of victims or shots fired.

Earlier in the day Miami Beach police said they received a call on a non-emergency line from a person saying he had shot four people at the home and needed assistance.

"We can say for sure it was a hoax," police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez said after a SWAT team searched the home in an exclusive island neighborhood. "We were unable to locate any victims or subjects."

Wayne's record company, Young Money, said on Twitter he was not at home at the time and he later tweeted that the incident was a "prank kall."

The hoax call trend is known as "swatting" because SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) officers often are sent to the purported crime scenes. Authorities say such situations can be dangerous due to the risk of a misunderstanding between police and occupants of a building.

Swatting calls have previously sent police to the homes of actor Ashton Kutcher and singers Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus.